Transformers the Movie 2: Regroup and Retaliate
by ShadesofChaos40
Summary: With Transformers 2 and 3 already approved, this is my take on what I think the sequel should be like. With the Allspark destroyed, the Autobots and Decepticons are fighting for a new prize, one that could start the war all over again.
1. Revival

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Disclaimer: Transformers and all other characters related to the 2007 movie are owned by their respective owners, not me.

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Chapter 1: Revival 

Energon. It is a most unusual substance. Up until recently its existence was a complete unknown to all forms of life on the planet Earth but, after the Allspark Wars, a few select people on the planet knew of its existence. However, with the Allspark destroyed, they slept soundly in their beds, secure in the knowledge that, with no more available energon, and with the Decepticon threat neutralised, the Allspark wars could never be repeated. But, had these few known the true properties of energon. They might have more reason to be concerned. For energon is, to put it mildly, sentient. Not in the sense that it knows where it is or what it is doing. But, it has an almost magnetic attraction to where it needs to be.

The main purpose of energon is give life to a Transformer. So, that is what raw energon always strives to do. If there is insufficient energon to create a new spark, then energon will seek out an old spark and attempt reanimation. If there are no old sparks, then the energon will root itself in any stable bedrock, and await discovery and a purpose.

Transformers are being of energon. Thus, it is relatively simple for a Transformer to sense the presence of another. Over time, the war has made it a necessity for this trait to be cloaked to prevent detection. But even so, Transformers still give off a faint aura of energon particles. Their sparks constantly divide and grow like cells in an organism, so excess energon must be removed less the spark overload, and this process goes on all the time.

3000 years ago, Megatron, leader of the Decepticon forces crash landed in the Arctic Circle. Before he could free himself, he froze. But, he remained alive, his spark, and central processors remained active, and excess energon was removed. It leaked into the surrounding atmosphere, and over three thousand years, the slow build up of energon created an energy reading large enough to attract both the Allspark and the Transformers in nearby space. But, as soon as they landed, the Autobots and Decepticons began their war over the Allspark, none of them even bothering to investigate the quantity of energon on the planet.

ARCTIC CIRCLE – PRESENT DAY

The sun hadn't set for three months. Constant light bathed the endless expanses of snow and ice. A young polar bear cub sat on his haunches, watching a hole in the ice. This must be a seal hole, and soon he would be able to catch his first meal by himself. His mother was over the ridge to the east trying to hunt seals herself. The young male was almost at the age where he would leave his mother for good. But he had no concept of that realization. Right here, right now, only the small hole in the ice held any interest for him.

Then, a noise. Very faint, almost on the edge of hearing, far outside the hearing range of any human. The young polar bear tilted his head. Was it a seal, colliding with the underside of the ice, trying to locate the hole? In preparation, the young male stood up slowly, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on the hole. In truth, standing up was probably what saved the cub's life as with an almighty crack, a jagged split formed in the ice behind him. With a startled yelp, the bear ran across the gap before it widened too much, and, never looking back, ran over the ridge to the protection of his mother as the fissure widened to let the whole section of ice fall into the sea where, almost too slowly to perceive, it began to melt.

LAURENTIAN ABYSS – 7 MONTHS LATER

Pulled by underwater currents, and with no means of propulsion, the mass of water that had once been the ice flow now made up part of the 7 miles of water above the Laurentian Abyss. Suspended in the water, invisible to the naked eye, were hundreds of thousands of tiny particles. This amount of energon had taken over a hundred years to accumulate in the ice. But now, it was free, and sensed a Transformer. Slowly, as if pulled by invisible ropes, the particles rotated, and began to move downwards.

7 miles down, there is no light, there is no sound. There is only pressure. As per the instructions of US secretary of defence John Keller, the only sign that several alien robots were laying on the bottom of the ocean was a pile of rocks, dislodged by massive explosives. But, this barrier proved no obstacle for the energon particles, they were far smaller than even the tiniest gap between the rocks, and so, they manoeuvred their way between the stones, until they reached their goal. Under the rock formation, sheltered in a natural cavern, the prone figures of five robots could be sensed. Pieces of shrapnel and broken limbs were strewn all around. Even laying here, exposed to the pressure and erosion for two years, the robots could have been discarded yesterday, such was their ability to withstand the elements. All five belonged to the faction of Transformers known as the Decepticons, a faction who, if allowed, would destroy the Earth and conquer the universe. It is possible that, had the energon particles possessed a higher knowledge and a sense of morality concerning right and wrong. They would have simply been content to drift in the ocean, leaving the Decepticons to the fate they so obviously deserved. But, energon possesses no such scruples, and the multitude of particles went to work.

However, the sparks of Transformers are extraordinarily complex, to resurrect even one of these gigantic monstrosities would require over ten times the amount of particles available. But, the efforts of the energon would not go to waste, for among the five, there was one small enough and simple enough to make use of their life giving abilities.

Darkness. So dark. Why can't I see? Where am I? Running internal diagnostic. Broken. Everything's broken. No weapons. No sensors. Not even any damn eyes. Initiate optic sensor repair. Estimated time until completion: ten minutes.

Ten minutes later, Frenzy's eye filters flickered on. Where once there was only blackness, there was now a dim blue light. Instinctively, Frenzy reached out his arms to pull himself up. Then he realised he had hit a snag. He didn't have any arms. No wonder he didn't have any weapons or movement capabilities. He was a head! Sighing internally, Frenzy waited for more of his systems that were contained within his head to come back online.

It was his short range scanner that came back online next. Slowly, trying to reserve as much processing speed for repairs as possible, Frenzy scanned the immediate area. He was underwater, that much was obvious. There was limited oxygen content, and he had to be pretty deep underwater because his internal barometer was off the scale. So, getting to the surface and getting help was going to be a problem. Not one that had to be tackled right away, but a problem nevertheless.

As time went on, Frenzy's scanners increased in range and he increased his radius. He caught shapes that definitely were not indigenous to the planet. With enough power stored in his backup generator in his head, Frenzy's jaws extended outwards, becoming legs that supported his head. Skittering along, Frenzy crept up to the nearest shape and proceeded to scan. It didn't take long to confirm Frenzy's suspicions that it was Cybertronian in origin. Further scanning revealed it to be the Decepticon Bonecrusher. Frenzy grumbled. Like all Decepticons, Frenzy possessed little concern for the welfare of any Transformer other than himself. Still, he turned and scanned the other figures. Decepticon Devastator, Decepticon Blackout and, Frenzy gave an involuntary scream when the results of his final scan came through.

Lord Megatron. The Decepticon leader was missing a leg, and further probing revealed that his spark had been overloaded, but still, Frenzy had no way to assist his Lord, so he continued to scan, looking for an exit from the rocky cavern. His scans didn't pick up an exit, but they did pick up something even more interesting. His body.

On spindly crab-legs, Frenzy scurried over to where his body lay. Despite the fact that it was currently missing a head, it appeared to be in very good shape. His razor disc launcher was out of ammo, but other than that it was easily serviceable.

Frenzy had been in many campaigns of conquest under the banner of both Megatron and Starscream since his creation, and one of the things that inspired, not terror, but severe unpleasantness in the Decepticon troops was the sometimes necessary action of reattaching a lost limb. Transforming into an alternate form was cinch. You merely scanned the alternate form, and voila, your internal programs did the rest. But, were he to try that here, his entire head would transform into a body with no head. So, Frenzy willed the severed cables from the base of his head to extend, and using his motor drives, manoeuvred them into position. The cables of head and body met in a sudden shower of sparks which were immediately extinguished by the water. The sensation was not dissimilar to flipping the right way up very quickly after standing on your head for a long time. All of the energy that had previously been confined to Frenzy head flooded out to fill the rest of his body. Simultaneously, the massive flow on energon ignited his spark. Frenzy's body was lifted several inches off the floor, even under all the pressure. Feeling returned in a whirlwind of information. With the resurrection of his spark, all of Frenzy's systems came back online and started to feedback information into his central processor. Overwhelmed with the sheer volume of data, Frenzy gave a digitised shriek and shut down.

He had no idea how long it was when he began functioning again. After such a prolonged period of inactivity, Frenzy's internal clock was messed up. Yet, there was plus side. He had guns, he had ammo. Frenzy's period of being shut down had allowed his internal systems to reboot and repair themselves. His spindly three-fingered hand transformed into a chain gun and he looked around for the nearest rock formation that could be blasted without caused a landslide that would destroy them all. As he spotted a likely boulder and levelled his sights, Frenzy was reminded of an old saying that had probably originated on a planet long since brought under the rule of the Decepticons but nonetheless rang true at the moment.

"If fate does not provide you with a door. Go ahead and make one."

The boulder exploded silently, pieces of debris burst outwards as, slowly, fighting against the pressure, Frenzy walked out of the rockslide. Inside the cavern, he had been sheltered from the majority of the pressure, but now, the pressure was stifling. Built of Cybertronian alloy, Frenzy was in no danger of being crushed, but it was going make his job harder. Grimacing at the prospect of the journey ahead, Frenzy braced his legs, diverted all excess power to his limbs, and began to swim upwards.

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A head broke the surface silently and looked around, sensors sweeping. After so long submerged, the light took some time getting used to. But the pain of the light was nothing compared to the discomfort of the feeling that one is incomplete. 

It had taken a lot of time, patience and endless scanning, but the hunt was nearing the end. Scorponok tilted his head slightly, trying to pinpoint the prize. Those humans really were stupid. If they were half as clever as they thought they were, they would have taken his tail overseas, to one of their secure buildings in their defended headquarters. Instead, they had left it here, inside a research outpost in the middle of the desert. They really were stupid. Scorponok may not have possessed the superior firepower of his commander Blackout, but he had more than enough to level this facility and take back what was rightfully his. The humans had been foolish enough to try and destroy him, and, deep within the animalistic mind of Scorponok, he thought it was only fair to return the favour in kind. Eyes flashing, sensors on full, Scorponok burrowed beneath the sand once more.

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Involuntarily, Frenzy took a breath as his head broke the surface. He had no need to breathe, but the action was purely reflex. Now that he had reached the surface, all of the Earth's satellites were well within his range. Using his personalised code, Frenzy sent a distress call across the globe. Any Decepticon within the Earth's atmosphere would receive the signal and hopefully, respond. 

Half a mile below the surface of the Qatar desert, Scorponok received the signal. He paused a moment, contemplating this new message. Then with a dismissive thought, he deleted it. It was not from Blackout, nor was it a direct order from Lord Megatron and it most certainly did not pertain to his tail, so therefore, it was beneath his notice. Scorponok didn't give the message a second thought as he resumed his vigil.

On the very reaches of Earth's atmosphere, Starscream intercepted the message. Still searching for the Decepticon ship, which had since moved around in erratic autopilot, Starscream had decided to lower his altitude to see if he could hack the military network discretely. After all, the insects had been fortunate enough to destroy Megatron, they may have also recovered the ship from orbit. He paid it more attention than Scorponok did, but only slightly. Frenzy was no combat drone. He couldn't fly up here to challenge Starscream, and like all the other foolish Decepticons, he was unable to see further than his blind loyalty to the outdated Megatron. Let Frenzy try and contact the others, it wouldn't interfere with the bigger picture anyway.

Only one Decepticon acted on the signal. In the parking lot of the Tranquility police station, one panda car quietly reversed out of its parking spot, turned, and drove off towards the shore. Later, an officer would comment on the empty space and the reference files would be checked. However, all of the cars that were owned by the TCPD would be present and accounted for. After that, no one would think anything of it.


	2. Attack

Hello all, I hope you're enjoying the story so far. So far it's all progressing nicely and there are few plot twists so far. Give them time people. So, please enjoy and don't forget to review.

Disclaimer: Transformers and all other characters related to the 2007 movie are owned by their respective owners, not me.

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Chapter 2: Attack 

As the many citizens of the city known as Tranquillity all stopped work for their lunch breaks and congregated around the multitude of fast food outlets and coffee shacks that seemed to be almost an integral part of any American city, the sun had already long set and the moon had risen to take its place in the inky black skies above the military research facility in Qatar.

Scorponok's head broke the surface of the desert completely silently. His dulled metallic surface reflected none of the ample moonlight or starlight than shone even brighter out here with no light pollution to get in the way. Scorponok was preparing himself for his assault. He had assured himself of the location of his missing tail segment and was getting himself ready to break into the facility and take it back. Scorponok was not a very advanced Transformer, lacking the capacity for much rational thought, but he did understand the need for some stealth on a mission such as this. He had been watching the military traffic into and out of the base for two days now. Ever since his superior had levelled the SOCCENT forward military base, the troops and vehicles entering the Middle East still needed somewhere to land and refuel and many of the isolated facilities were being forced to double up as on the fly refuelling stations. The military presence was not heavy, only two or three tanks and less than half a dozen jets, but these were more than enough to handle Scorponok. He was a Decepticon built for anti-personnel battles, designed to harass the opponent until a larger Decepticon could administer the killing blow. He may not be able to take these weapons alone, at least without sustaining injuries at least equal to the one he had taken last time, the injury that had led him to this situation. But, it was late, security would be lax. All intruders would be expected from the air or the road, not from the sand itself. Scorponok submerged himself again, and moved in.

The security guard sat in his executive style swivel chair in the booth just inside the main gates. They were securely locked as per standard regulations. Not that any attack was expected, this lab did nothing of any real significance, it was just another research lab in the middle of nowhere, constructed by the American military in order to ensure that the North Koreans and Russians kept their money and their manpower stretched watching installations that most likely didn't need watching at all. It was one of the most boring jobs in the world watching this concrete block located in the middle of God's sandbox. Casually he flicked his gaze over to the radar scanner set into the wall, no foreign bodies detected. This installation may not do anything worth talking about, but it still had some forms of protection. Grunting with satisfaction, the guard took another swig from his mug of coffee, put his feet up on the desk, and continued to channel surf. The reception out here in the wilderness was awful; the best he could get was some terrible Arabic soap opera and archaic reruns of The Simpsons. Eventually, the guard got lucky. One of the American satellites must be making a pass overhead as the screen was filled with the image of a basketball game. The guard preferred baseball, but any sport was preferable to none. He sat back and prepared for the long haul until morning. Every so often, he looked at the 65 security screens on the wall in front of him.

Over an hour later, the guard's interest in the game was waning. With twelve minutes of play left, one team had built up a commanding fifteen point lead and the winner was all but assured. With nothing else to do, the guard scanned the security screens again. Odd. Camera 56 was displaying only static. The guard got up and tapped the screen impatiently with a finger. Frowning and with curses forming on his lips, he turned to consult the blueprints of the facility. It didn't take him long to find the little circle containing the number 56. It was in the next block over, a research lab investigating the effects of temperature on the night time activities of kangaroo rats. The guard swore, some snot-faced lab assistant must have left the specimen cages open and the rats must be loose. Grumbling, the guard grabbed his key ring from the hook on the wall. If left alone, those rats could wreck the equipment in the entire lab. He opened the door violently.

Three bullets hit him in the torso. Scorponok was a very good shot. Two of the bullets ruptured his lungs, and the third hit him in the heart. The man was dead before he hit the ground. Scorponok picked up the man's corpse, studied it for a brief second, flung it back into the booth and discreetly closed the door. Unless any troublemakers came looking for the guard, he'd remain undiscovered until next morning, and by that time, Scorponok would be well away. Scorponok skittered to the rear of the booth, where one severed cable lay. With one flick of his claw, the other 64 cables leading to the security cameras were cut. Turning on the spot, Scorponok headed to the east block, floor three, room 27. That, was where his tail was.

Like many other deserts on Earth, the Qatar desert was scorching hot during the day, but freezing cold at night. But humans are better adapted to working in the cold, so, even though it was the dead of night, experiments were still being conducted. Scorponok moved from shadow to shadow, never straying into light more than was absolutely necessary. Those few humans he encountered were avoided, or disposed of. It took only a few minutes to reach the door to the East block. It was locked, but two bullets in the keyhole soon sorted that problem. The door swung opened, bent and mangled from the force of the impacts. Scorponok scuttled inside. Those bullets hadn't been silenced and the metal had rung out far louder than anticipated. Someone would investigate before too long. The time for stealth had ended, now it was time for speed. There were two researchers in lab coats walking between rooms in the corridor as Scorponok approached, deciding to try and avoid detection within the building for as long as possible, the Decepticon dug his insectoid legs into the wall, and slowly ascended. The first researcher died instantly as Scorponok fell on top of him, all talons pointed downwards. The clank he made as he hit the floor caused the first researcher to spin round in shock. He turned just in time for a spray of bullets from Scorponok's gatling gun to hit him in the face. The man fell, blood pooling around his body. Scorponok's sensors scanned the walls quickly, searching for room 27. They found it and Scorponok threw himself at the door. Of the three armed military personnel standing on guard in the room, one was standing right in front of the door and was punctured by both shards of glass from the window set into the door, and insect legs, sharpened to razor sharp points. The remaining two guards opened up with their semi automatic rifles. Scorponok dashed to the side to take cover behind a research table. The remaining two guards and the three scientists all ducked as well. Scorponok snarled and leapt on top of the bench using the momentary height advantage to take pot shots at the group of five figures cowering in their makeshift cover. He hit the female researcher in the leg but was forced to duck sideways as three armour piercing rounds sliced into one of his legs. Growling at the impudence of the human, Scorponok fired at the research bench that the humans were sheltering behind, the force of his Cybertronian enhanced bullets pushing it backwards, pinning the humans between it and the wall. Scanners still constantly sweeping, Scorponok paused for a moment to locate his tail. It was strapped to a bench. Numerous wires attached it to various meters; all monitoring a different aspect of his limb. Still laying down suppressive fire, Scorponok edged closer to his tail. Then his sensors gave him some new information. Evidently the humans had been experimenting with different concentrations of acid, to see if any of them could be used as a weapon against his kind. Now, Scorponok was going to turn the tables. Bullets shattered the glass beakers containing the acid, causing the fluid to wash off the tables and onto the humans cowering below. Screams issued from the humans as the acid ate into their skin. But Scorponok thought nothing of that, with a thought and an activation of a few select subroutines, wires snaked from the area where Scorponok's tail tip should have been and latched onto the piece of metal laying on the bench. The surge of energy that coursed through Scorponok's mainframe was not as large as that which had shot through Frenzy, if it had been, then Scorponok would also have been forced to shut down. As it was, the only adverse side affect was a three second short out of his weapon systems, however, that was all the time one of the soldiers needed to throw a flash grenade over the bench. The world exploded into whiteness.

Irritated by the new development, Scorponok allowed his optical sensors to switch to infra-red mode, then, he sprinted towards the desk and, without hesitation, rammed his newly retrieved tail spike right through it. It impaled one of the scientists through the chest. Blood spattered the walls as the man died. The two military guards braced themselves against the wall, and with one mighty heave, overturned the bench so that it landed on top of Scorponok. The two guards leapt to their feet and began pumping bullets into those parts of Scorponok that were not covered by bench.

Scorponok burst out from underneath the bench. The piece of furniture soared through the air before landing on one of the two researchers left. As this human was made of less durable materials than the Decepticon, he expired amid the noise of multiple breaking bones. With a primeval roar of fury, Scorponok launched himself at the second of the guards, firing both his gatling guns as he went, Scorponok had no need to disembowel the man, he was dead long before Scorponok reached him. That left only one more guard and the woman. Scorponok leapt, not forwards, but backwards out into the corridor, and as he did, he fired one singular missile from his supply mounted within his arms. The room exploded, the doorway billowing yellow flame and acrid smoke as the fires ignited the chemicals within the laboratory. Scorponok ran down the corridor taking aim at the wall at the end.

A second missile blew a hole in the wall and Scorponok half leapt, half fell out of the hole onto the soft desert sand below. With only a brief pause, he turned to survey his handiwork. The entire top half of the building was burning and men were running for their vehicles, attacking an enemy that was no longer there. Scorponok primed three delayed action grenades and fired them into the compound. Without even looking back to see the destruction, Scorponok tunnelled into the sand as the explosions ripped the air.

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Explosions ripped the air. The previously black night was alight with the fires of multiple explosions, and hundreds died as the perpetrator slid away beneath the sands. 

Samuel Witwicky awoke with a cry; the dream had been so real he was surprised that he was not burning hot. But, of all the things to dream, why that? The metallic creature in his dream must have been a Transformer. There was no doubt in his mind about that, and neither was their any doubt as to the Transformer's allegiance. No Autobot would commit destruction on that large a scale. Almost instinctively, Sam reached for the radio by his bedside table. It was a large, chunky two wave radio. But its appearance deceived as to its capability. The radio had been modelled on that recovered from Jazz after the battle of Mission City. There were six numbers programmed in it. The first, if pressed would put him in direct connection with Ratchet, the Autobot's medical officer. Ratchet had spent a long time repairing all the injuries sustained in Mission City and, while he scoured the globe, trying to learn more about this new home that he and the other Autobots had found, he had offered his assistance if ever it was needed.

The second number would allow him to open communication channels with Ironhide. Unlike the other Autobots now on Earth, Ironhide expressed little desire to investigate this new world. In fact Ironhide had appointed himself a new role in life. He had become the guardian of Captain Lennox's family, much like Bumblebee was the guardian of Sam's.

The third number belonged to Lennox himself. Unlike Keller or Simmons, Lennox and his team were not so sure that the Decepticon threat was as over as the government maintained it was. Lennox had told Sam that if ever a Decepticon was even hinted at, to give him a call right away. Now, the humans knew what Decepticons were, and they wouldn't be caught off guard again. After all, Lennox still had a high status within the military, and his voice was much more likely to be heard than Sam's in the positions of power.

The fourth number on the radio linked to a corresponding radio held by Tom Banachek, previously the head of government special team Sector 7. Although all military commanders had been assured that Section 7 had been disbanded, Keller and Banachek agreed that the work done by the organisation was too vital to simply stop. As with Lennox, Banachek kept communication with Sam only as a kind of early warning system of a repeated threat.

The fifth channel was linked to one held by a person who was, now, the single most important person in Sam's life. Mikaela Banes. She and Sam were officially an item now, and though many people couldn't believe it, they were all unaware of the circumstances surrounding their attraction. Although Ratchet had offered to become Mikaela's guardian, she politely refused, saying that she was more than capable of handling any Decepticon threat on her own. Unsurprisingly, the Autobots hadn't believed her, and had given her a radio identical to Sam's to ensure her safety.

The sixth button was perhaps the most important one of all. It patched into the comm of the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. Like Ratchet, Optimus was also exploring the world in order to learn more about its ways and peoples. However, like all of the Autobots, they had all agreed that their true hometown on the planet was that of Tranquillity, and all had promised that, after their journeys, Tranquillity was where they would stay.

The dream weighed heavily on Sam's mind and his finger hovered over the button marked "6". But, it was only a dream. He didn't want to call Optimus back from halfway across the world only for a dream. No, Sam thought as he pushed the radio back into his desk drawer, nothing would ever come of it. The cube was destroyed, Megatron was dead, and finally they could all relax.

Only a dream. Sam lay his head on the pillows again and let sleep consume him. It wasn't real. It didn't really happen.

3000 miles away in Qatar, the sand settled, as flames licked the sky.

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So, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed it, any comments or constructive criticisms can be sent to me through the little blue button below. Thanks, and good night 


	3. Reconnaissance

Disclaimer: Transformers and all other characters related to the 2007 movie are owned by their respective owners, not me.

Note: In the last two chapters, the Decepticons have had their time to shine. Now it's the Autobots turn.

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Chapter 3: Reconnaissance 

The next morning, Saturday, the sun rose into the sky, bringing with it the kind of atmosphere that made you feel, that for one split second, everything was well in the world. At least, that was the feeling that washed over Sam as he lay on the lawn staring up at the sky.

For Sam, life couldn't get much better. He had helped saved the world, made a bunch of new friends, who happened to be 30 foot high transforming alien robots, and more importantly, he was the official boyfriend of the hottest girl in school. In fact, he had planned a special weekend just for the two of them. He had saved up most of his money for the last three months and spent it renting out the most luxurious beach hut he could find on the most romantic beach in the area. Sam was feeling good, and who knows, maybe this weekend would be the one that marked the change from a high school dating couple into something more serious. He would pick up Mikaela and take her to the beach for 48 hours of nothing but each other. Or at least, he would do if his car was around.

Since the conclusion of the Mission City battle and, once it had become apparent that the Transformer presence on Earth was going to be a long term arrangement, Optimus and the other Autobots had started to not only find out about the humans, but allow the humans to find out about them. One of the first things Sam had been told was the danger of long-term Transformation. In essence, in order to maintain a foolproof disguise as an Earth vehicle, it requires something of a change in the Transformer's actual main processor. To put it simply, Transformers are not robots looking like cars, they are actually cars, they merely retain some semblance of their personalities and processing capabilities while in vehicle form, and, as a direct consequence of this, if a Transformer spends too long in a vehicle form, their processors become more and more like that of a vehicle and it becomes harder to keep hold of that part which is an autonomous robot. Until eventually their processors become too used to vehicle form and they lose the ability to transform back. The remedy for this was for a Transformer to transform into robot mode for a few hours every day.

In Sam's case, this meant that Bumblebee would drive himself out of the garage every night, head either into the hills or into the old abandoned warehouse that the Autobots had found and become robot again. This was fine with Sam except for the fact that Bumblebee seemed to possess no sense of timing and his reappearances would be completely random. Sam leaned up on his elbows and looked at the garage. No Camaro. Sam sighed, fell back down, and continued to think about Mikaela.

The sun was high in the sky by the time the familiar roar of Bumblebee's engine was heard coming down the road. Sam was on his feet and standing on the sidewalk by the time Bumblebee rolled casually to a stop outside the house. Sam threw open the door, flung himself into the driver's seat and slammed the door behind him.

"Where were you?" He yelled, slapping the dashboard with one hand. Bumblebee said nothing. Sometimes having a dodgy voice box was very convenient Sam thought as he put his seatbelt on and floored the accelerator. "Now I'm late. You know how important this weekend is to me. Just once I needed you to be there on time." Bumblebee said nothing and continued to let Sam dictate the direction. Maybe, if Sam knew why he was so late, he'd be more understanding.

Sam pulled up on the corner of Mikaela's street. Sam still wasn't really comfortable in the presence of Mikaela's parents. Shortly after Mission City, Mikaela's father had had his parole hearing and had managed to be accepted. It had never been mentioned exactly how much of a hand Sam and the Autobots had played in her father's release. However, Mikaela's father was very possessive. After all, he had just had his little girl given back to him, and now this dweeb in the flashy Camaro was trying to take her away again. So Mikaela's father was not exactly buddy-buddy with Sam at the moment. Her mother was accepting of Sam given that he cared for Mikaela but, on Sam's first visit to the Banes' household, Mikaela's mother had discreetly pulled him aside and promised that if Sam ever let Mikaela down, he would never walk again. After that night, Sam had tried to avoid contact with Mikaela's family. Before too long, Mikaela looked out of her bedroom window on the top floor, spotted the bright yellow Camaro, waved (Bumblebee flashed his headlights in response), disappeared from view, and shortly appeared out of the front door with a backpack over her shoulder. She was wearing the exact same outfit that she'd been wearing at the lake over a year ago and Sam had to work hard to keep his eyes on her face as opposed to other parts of her body.

Mikaela opened the back door and put her backpack on the seat, then she walked back round to the front and got in the passenger side door.

"Hey Sam." She said, putting her seat belt on as Bumblebee started driving away by himself. "Hey Bumblebee." She added. The radio flicked on and the repeated Hello from "Sounds like Teen Spirit" started playing. Mikaela laughed as Sam turned the radio off. Mikaela turned to Sam.

"So, where are we going?"

"Just wait," Sam said grinning like a maniac, "I've rented this awesome hut on the beach for the weekend. Oh, just wait 'til you see it. It's…" Sam trailed off as he finally noticed where Bumblebee was going.

"Oh no, no, no. Bumblebee! Turn around right now." Bumblebee ignored his ranting charge and continued to trundle down the dirt path that led to the disused warehouse.

The warehouse had once been owned by a food company that had stored food in Tranquillity before taking the supplies over to the port towns by train. However, a strain of salmonella had been found in one batch, the customers had lost faith, the money had stopped coming in, and nonessential facilities were shut down. The site had been up for sale to property developers, but the site was too far out of the way to make development viable. Now, it was just left to rust. At least, it had been until the Autobots had moved in. It seemed a perfect home and the Autobots cared very little about the state of the place, being that they were so used to seeing damaged metal. They had seen so much scrap on Cybertron that a few knocks and dents in a warehouse were nothing to them.

Bumblebee squealed to a stop outside of the double doors and honked his horn three times. A few seconds later the doors were pushed open, seemingly by no-one. Bumblebee drove in, with Sam still protesting loudly. Once inside, the doors swung shut again. Bumblebee opened his doors and gave a little shake which was sufficiently violent for Sam and Mikaela to fall out. Sam pulled himself to him feet and rounded on the Camaro.

"I can't believe you'd do this Bumblebee. We had a deal man. I mean, wasn't two weeks off good enough for you. That was the deal right. All I wanted was for you to drive where I wanted today. After all, you're my guardian right? Doesn't that mean you do what I say?" Mikaela put her hand on Sam's shoulder, stopping him mid-rant.

"Sam," She said quietly, causing Sam to turn around. "Is that what I think it is?" Sam looked where Mikaela was looking and it suddenly dawned on him exactly why Bumblebee had brought them here.

"Jazz?"

The blackened hull of the Autobot second in command was lying on an impromptu workbench. Hundreds of cables snaked from various apertures on the robot's hull and fed into a computer on the desk. Despite how old the computer looked, Sam could tell it had been heavily modified by Ratchet. The screen was flashing, alternating between white, black and blue. Aside, from the flashing, nothing was moving. Then…

"S'up Sam? S'up Mikaela?" The screen flashed in time with the words. Mikaela gave a small scream and Sam, prepared as always merely stood with his mouth hanging open.

"Jazz?" Sam said slowly "Is that really you?"

"No." The voice said again, screen flashing. "It's the fraggin' tooth fairy. 'Course it's me."

"But, in Mission City, Megatron." That was Mikaela, having recovered enough to form a coherent sentence.

"Did a number on me good an' proper," The computer's speakers said. "But, while Sam was off saving the universe and you and Bumblebee were blastin' ol' Devastator to hell an' back, Ratchet found my personality chip. Soon as we got this place, he installed me into this thing. And I gotta tell ya kids, your technology is awful. I hadda spend this last year dumbin' myself down so I could use it."

"But your body," Sam said, looking at the heap of twisted metal.

"Ah, don' worry about that." The computer said. Sam was kind of disconcerted by the fact that it had managed to copy Jazz's accent as well. "I won't be getting that body back, if that's what you're thinking. Too much scrap, not enough parts. But hey, I'm still talkin' an' that's good enough for me." Jazz said as the two teenagers stared at the contraption on the desk. "So, what'd I miss? You two get it on yet?" This shocked Sam and Mikaela into silence. Ever since Ratchet's statement on the night they'd all met, the Autobots had been trying to master the art of what the humans called tact. They were coming along nicely but it was obvious that Jazz's lessons had been cut short. Jazz merely took there silence as a negative and continued talking. "Ok then, forget about that. Guess there's more important things to be talkin' 'bout anyway. So, start talking. Did we win?" That question seemed to do it. At least for Mikaela anyway, and, as she started to talk about everything that Jazz had missed Sam got the feeling that the beach and a romantic weekend were suddenly an awful long way away.

* * *

The comm screen was dead. Not that that was really surprising. The screen had been dead for a long time. Almost as long as the crew had been stranded on this barren asteroid. The departure from Cybertron had been proceeding nicely until that Decepticon cruiser had shown up out of nowhere and taken out their aft engines. With nowhere left to go, and the _Ark_ easily outpacing them, the secondary escape ship had been forced to crash on the nearest stable planetary surface amidst a hail of plasma. Luckily, the crew of the Cruiser had assumed that the crew had died in the crash and flown off. But still, repair work had been slow and difficult. A lack of parts had meant that they had had to resort to using parts salvaged from the crew that did die in the crash. And most of their systems had been knocked offline, including the comm screen.

"_**crackle**_ Allspark gone, we cannot return _**fizz**_" The transformer working at a panel suddenly dropped everything and ran for the comm, picking up the receiver from its bracket on the wall.

"Alert, Alert. Boss! Incoming Transmission! It's Optimus!" The last word was screamed with a mixture of joy and despair. The beloved leader of the Autobots was alive and safe. But, what had he said about the Allspark? It was gone? But that meant that Cybertron…

The Autobot was snapped out of his thoughts by the presence of their own leader who gently pushed him out of the way and listened to the message.

"**_fizz_** new world to call home. We live among its people now _**crackle**_" A long burst of static filled the airwaves and all of the Autobots that had rushed to the bridge waited in tense apprehension that the message was disrupted. But then, to everyone's relief it came back, clear as a bell, so that no one could mishear it.

"I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars: We are here. We are waiting." Then the message cut off, no static. The message had just ended. Silence filled the bridge of the _Exodus_ until finally one Transformer dared to speak.

"Just like Optimus that. Short, and to the point." The leader suddenly rose from where he had been leaning on the comm panel.

"Right, I want two Autobots analyzing that signal. I want to know where it came from and if it was really Optimus who sent it. I know it sounds like him, but don't forget that there are Decepticons out there who want our sparks really badly. The rest of you, get this ship ready to move. As soon as we get confirmation one way or the other, we're heading out. If that message came from Optimus, lock onto the co-ordinates and follow it. If it didn't, that means the Decepticons have found us and we're not safe here anyway." And, as all the other Autobots on the ship scurried away to perform their duties, the leader muttered to himself, "And I hope to the Allspark that Optimus sent it."

* * *

Well, there we go. I'm introducing new Transformers now. It must admit that G1 transformers are not my strong suit so there may only be a few of them appearing. More likely the new characters will be Transformers from the Cybertron or Armada series. But, I'm always open to suggestions which can be submitted via the little blue button below. Also, there is a special prize for anyone who can guess the identity of "the leader" 


	4. Transmission

Chapter 4: Transmission

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Disclaimer: All Transformer characters and Characters of the 2007 movie are copyrighted to their respective owners, not me.

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A piece of serrated steel fashioned in the image of a blade swung gracefully through the air and neatly cut a particularly large creeper hanging from a mangrove tree. Taking care to remove the creeper from the trail that he was standing on, Optimus Prime climbed carefully through the newly created gap. The Autobot leader had been wandering this new planet for over a year and a half and his extensive travels had brought to the jungles surrounding the Amazon river. Once their home world had been a land of beautiful metallic structures, immaculately constructed sky scrapers reaching almost through the atmosphere, and instead of seas, a rippling mass of cogs, spinning and rotating around each other to give the illusion of water. Paper thin sheets of metallic alloys were grafted to pillars of steel to create almost perfect metallic representations of trees. A long time ago, some of the very first Transformers had left the planet on a search for new worlds. They had found a planet filled with nature and brought back many pictures, taken from orbit. So overwhelmed by the beauty that was not dissimilar to the elegance crafted by Transformers were these forefathers, that the population of Cybertron had created multitudes of homages in metal on their own planet. But all of that beauty had been destroyed in the civil war. Trees and lakes destroyed so that their parts could be harvested for use in the war effort. All of the demolition had been all but completed when Optimus' spark was forged. But his predecessor Rodimus Prime had shared with Optimus the images of Cybertron as it had once been and the then young Autobot had been implanted with a fervent wish to see Cybertron restored to its former glory.

But now, Optimus was standing on the surface of what must have once been the original planet, seen by Transformers of old. Optimus' home would be on Cybertron in his spark. But, being here now, on the planet that had been the inspiration for Cybertron's golden age, made the pain of his separation from his home world that little bit more bearable.

Optimus was so absorbed in his internal thoughts, that he almost missed the transmission that flashed through the air. Digitally, Optimus performed the equivalent of reaching out a hand and grabbing the transmission. Evidently one of his comrades had found something of some importance. Optimus casually opened the file. It wasn't from any of his team mates. The message was encrypted, and more than that. It was encrypted with a Decepticon cipher. Optimus began to worry. Optimus had a wide range of decoding software installed within his mainframe, but this encryption was resisting all of his best hacking efforts. What was a Decepticon transmission doing being broadcast on an emergency frequency? The Decepticons had all been destroyed hadn't they? Optimus continued to hack while simultaneously broadcasting the message to the other three Autobots.

Ratchet was currently trudging through the edges of Sahara desert as Optimus' transmission came through. Ratchet had always contained more deciphering software than any of his cohorts. He was a medical officer, not a fighter and had tried to fill those areas of his processor that weren't filled with combat protocols. Ratchet immediately broke into the file and set about decoding it. He managed to delete the inbuilt viruses as soon as they appeared and continued chipping away at the layers of code. But, a problem had arisen. The message was evidently set on a self destruct program, any attempt to hack the code would trip the program and cause all of the data within the transmission to be lost, and in his haste, Ratchet had set off the trap. Working against the clock, Ratchet delved deeper, his superior technology blasting away at the firewalls, a red digital timer filled his inner vision, counting down the time until his failure. With only 3 seconds left, Ratchet managed to salvage the origin co-ordinates. Then the self destruct kicked in and the message deleted itself. Sighing at his lack of ability to find out more information, Ratchet sent the co-ordinates back to Optimus. Optimus opened the file containing the co-ordinates and matched them to his internal GPS displaying the locations of the other three Autobots. Fate smiled on him. Ironhide was located within twenty miles of the origin. Optimus opened his communication line.

"Ironhide?" Ironhide was currently coasting along a freeway on the east coast when the message came through. The Lennox family had just gone to the Bahamas for a holiday, leaving Ironhide behind to his own devices.

"Optimus, what is it? You manage to crack that code?" Ironhide had filled all of his spare processing space with combat data, in fact, he had spent the last week augmenting his fighting style with fighting styles he had studied on the internet. He hadn't even been able to break the first line of encryption.

"Partially. Ratchet managed to obtain the origination co-ordinates from the transmission. I'm beaming them to you. I want you to check it out. Be careful, Decepticon ciphers were used." Ironhide laughed in response and turned off the freeway, towards the beach where the signal had originated.

"Relax Optimus, we dealt with all the Decepticons two years ago. And with the Allspark destroyed ain't no way they're coming back." The road was deserted so Ironhide stepped on the gas. Optimus reluctantly agreed and signed off.

The road grew narrower turning into a narrow one way street that skirted the beach higher up on a cliff. The azure waves splashed onto the sand below Ironhide and on his right, a gentle incline led up to the stretch of road going the other way. Ironhide grinned. It was a nice evening. He'd investigate the signal, probably some malfunctioning part of Decepticon that had washed up out of the trench, and spend a nice evening on the beach. Ironhide reached his turning and turned onto the road leading to the beach. A flash of movement caught his eye and he turned around.

A panda car smashed through the guard rail separating the two stretches of road and flew down the embankment. As it drove, it started to morph, transforming as it slid at high speed towards the Autobot. Ironhide was half transformed himself when Barricade slammed into him. The Decepticon was now fully transformed and grabbed the half transformed Autobot in a bear hug as the two fell the fifty feet towards the beach. Ironhide's head and arms were transformed into robot mode, but his legs were still folded up in car form. Ironhide revved his back tyres. The rapidly spinning wheels caught Barricade on the hip and began ripping his plating off. Screaming in pain and fury, Barricade let go. Ironhide finished transforming and landed in a crouch, warming up his cannons as Barricade landed heavily on his back in the sand. Ironhide wasted no time and fired three shots at the prone Decepticon as he advanced. Barricade rolled over, dodging the shot and clambering to his feet. With a growl, he swung and one of his flail arms caught Ironhide on the jaw, sending him flying backwards. Now on the offensive, Barricade fired a group of cluster missile, all of which split into more missiles. With a spray of plasma, Ironhide detonated all of them in mid air. Barricade fired more missiles as Ironhide rolled underneath them and came up firing. Three of his shots hit Barricade in the chest, knocking him back, but the Decepticon spun, using the momentum of his backwards stumble to whip out his flail arms again. Ironhide blocked one of the spiked pinwheels causing it to bend and buckle, but the other flail hit him in the side of the head knocking him onto his back. Barricade snarled and leapt aiming to crush Ironhide under his mass. Thinking quickly, Ironhide fired two charge shots at Barricade. The superheated balls of plasma caught Barricade in the stomach, reversing his momentum and sending him into a head over heels tumble. The Decepticon landed on his face groaning in agony.

Clutching his wounded face, Ironhide staggered to his feet. Barricade raised an arm and fired more shots, all of which hit Ironhide in the leg, forcing him to his knees. Barricade detached his remaining functioning flail arm and swung it towards the Autobot. With almost lightning fast reactions, Ironhide grabbed the flail on the chain and pulled it hard, dragging Barricade across the sand and into Ironhide's fist. The Autobot stood up shakily, holding the Decepticon by his chest. Growling, Ironhide pushed his cannon into the Decepticon's face.

"So," Ironhide said with mock cheerfulness "What's a nice little Decepticon doing all the way out here a place like this? It wouldn't have anything to do with a particular coded message would it?" The cannon started to hum as it warmed up.

"I could ask you the same question Autobyte." Barricade growled. It had always unnerved Ironhide as to how civilised Barricade sounded when he spoke.

"Listen Decepticreep. I ain't got time for your little guessing games. So either you tell me what the deal was with your little long-range Email, or you get a plasma bolt through that ugly face of yours." Ironhide snarled. Barricade smiled.

"Sadly, I don't think either of those will be happening." Barricade grinned. As he said that, a small compartment in his chest opened up and the barrel of a gun emerged. The grenade hit Ironhide point blank in the face. The Autobot fell backwards letting go of Barricade, who immediately transformed back into a police car and roared off leaving the prone mutilated figure of Ironhide on the beach.

* * *

The _Exodus_ emerged from its hyperspace jumped on the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere. The Captain breathed out in reverence. The planet below was beautiful. No wonder Optimus and the other Autobots had come here. Pressing a button, the Captain transmitted a message to the crew.

"I want the recon crew on deck ASAP please." Then he sat back and waited. Within a minute, two protoform Autobots were standing in front of him.

"Ok, you two, you know the drill, get down to the surface, find alternate forms and scout for indigenous life forms. Also, your highest priority is to track down Optimus Prime. Watch out for Decepticons." One of the two Autobots waved a hand dismissively.

"Yeah, we know sir. We've done this before sir." The leader snorted.

"Need I remind you Hot Shot? The last time I sent you two planet side in advance, I had to come down personally and rescue you two from a volcano!" Hot Shot hung his head suitably abashed. The leader nodded. "Now, to the pods. I want a report in 24 cliks, if not earlier. Blurr, you're in charge o reporting in. Try and make sure Hot Shot doesn't do anything too stupid." The other protoform nodded and the two walked away towards the escape pods. The leader sighed.

"Why do I have a very bad feeling about this?"


	5. Touchdown

Disclaimer: Transformers and all other characters related to the 2007 movie are owned by their respective owners, not me.

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Chapter 5: Touchdown

* * *

Despite the capacity of crew needed to man the _Exodus_ it was easy for the two recon Autobots to reach the escape pods unnoticed. Blurr had stopped off at the tech room in order to retrieve the long distance radio that was kept stored there. The _Exodus _had been scanning the planet below ever since it had emerged from the wormhole and the piece of technology could easily span the distance from ship to planet. Blurr reached into a side pocket in his utility belt and pulled out two microchips fashioned in the shape of the Autobot's symbol. He threw one to Hot Shot, who caught it in one hand and he affixed the other to his breastplate. This was their coded homing beacon. Often, when entering a new planets atmosphere, it wasn't uncommon for the two members of the recon team to become separated, meaning that the two would have to try and locate each other. At least, that was the theory. Usually, his cohort forgot to turn his beacon on, ending up in Blurr having to traverse many unnatural and often dangerous terrains in order to locate his luckless partner. This time however, Hot Shot placed the beacon on his arm and pressed it, turning it on. The beacon sounded like a monotonous blip in Blurr's head that grew louder whenever he moved closer to Hot Shot. Blurr touched his beacon to activate it, raised a hand to Hot Shot in farewell and entered the escape pod bay, heading for his own personal pod. Hot Shot headed to the other side of the bay to his own pod. Blurr slid into the pod and pressed the initiation switch. The feeling of the pod transforming and locking itself into his skin was disturbing and always a little creepy. When preparing for atmospheric entry, you always ran the risk that this time, one tiny component could fail and the entire Autobot would disintegrate in entry with the pod. But, Blurr had performed hundreds of entries throughout his life, and after the first few, he had learned to just stop thinking about potential hazards and focus on the mission in hand. With the preparations complete and Blurr and his escape pod now combined as one entity, the launch sequence engaged. Now, with nothing to do until he hit the planet, Blurr relaxed and tried to catch up on the sleep he was dearly missing.

* * *

Starscream was currently hovering at the very edge of space. He was currently in robot form, allowing the twin jet thrusters on his back to keep him airborne as he tried to probe the military networks. Hacking was harder than he thought it was. He was an accomplished hacker, but his style was very different from the Decepticons professional hacker, Frenzy. Starscream preferred to destroy files at random whilst searching for the information he required. He tried to disrupt his enemies network as much as possible while taking the information he wanted by force. But, at this moment stealth was required. If the humans detected his hacking now, then Starscream would have to deal with the human military. And if the humans found out that a Decepticon was alive, then there was little doubt that the Autobots would get involved like the troublemakers that they were. No, for now Starscream had to be subtle. He had stored Frenzy's distress signal in his memory banks and had pondered it at length. If Frenzy was alive and sending a distress signal then that meant that there were likely to be more Decepticons alive at the moment and that introduced…complications. He needed to remain hidden, a ghost of the past right up until the point that he struck without hesitation or remorse and crushed both Optimus Prime and the idiotic Megatron loyalists in one swift blow. But first, he needed his craft back. With the _Nemesis _back in his possession, he could radio back to Cybertron and gather his allies that had no doubt managed to overthrow the worthless honour guard that Megatron had left behind. But, the humans had picked up the craft. With all of its crew battling over the Allspark on the planet, the ship had been a sitting duck for Human spacecraft. And now, it was hidden. No doubt a remnant of Sector 7 had managed to get the craft taken to a secret hangar, a transaction done in secret, with all but the tiniest electronic trace to show that it had been done at all. That tiny trace was the very thing that Starscream was looking for. It was well hidden indeed and looking for it was driving him crazy. Then his radar blipped at him. Two unknown objects heading towards the planet at critical velocity. Silhouettes matched to Autobot entry pods.

Damn, damn, damn! The Autobots had managed to radio for help. Starscream hadn't expected them to call for reinforcements. The war was over. The two craft were separating in their uncontrollable flight. One was heading away, towards Europe. The other was going to land only a few hundred miles south of his position right in the middle of some sort of famous human sporting event. Starscream had never bothered learning the customs of the humans or their recreational activities. The only thing about the humans that Starscream was concerned about was their capability to reduce him to slag. But, once an Autobot had landed, its protoform was vulnerable up until the point where it managed to scan an alternate form. That, was a perfect time to strike. Starscream smiled, transformed into his jet form and rocketed away.

Hundreds of thousands of racing fans had gathered for the Mexican leg of the World Rally championship. The racers were rocketing around the track at almost 80 miles an hour. The various racing commentators who were covering the event all yelled excitedly into their microphones, and hundreds of cameras were stationed along the track, watching the progress of every single participant. Despite the mass of humans watching the race, very few of them saw the glowing ball of fire rocket across the track. The few that did nudged their friends and pointed upwards, but, by the time that their friends had looked upwards the ball of fire was gone. The news later that evening would report a very rare daytime meteor shower but the incident was just chalked up to an atmospheric fluctuation.

The meteor smashed to earth 20 miles away from the rally track. As soon as it had rolled to a stop, it disgorged its occupant. Hot Shot coughed with a rattling shake and stood up. His scanners were kicking in and relaying data. His pods internal scanners had managed to track any large mechanical objects that had entered scan range on his descent and now Hot Shot uplinked to his pod and consulted the scan results. His eyes fell on one result in particular, one particular car that had been taking part in the rally that day. His preliminary scans into the local information network managed to fit a name to the car. Toyota GT-One. It certainly looked impressive. But the colour was a bit off Hot Shot decided. The car in his scan results was bright scarlet, it would look a lot better in say, silver with maybe a dash of yellow. Mentally Hot Shot changed the colour scheme and initiated the initial transformation protocol. His body moved, limbs being twisted into new, yet not uncomfortable positions. Silver plating sprouted on his arms, legs and back. Yellow strips also appeared, circling his wrists and ankles. Two vertical strips ran along his back and, as his body twisted, these decorations integrated together, forming seamless panels and doors. Once the Transformation was completed, Hot Shot smirked internally, revved his tyres and squealed away on the bumpy ground.

Which promptly exploded beneath him.

* * *

Sam sat in the driver's seat in his rampant Camaro, glaring at the steering wheel. Mikaela sat in the passenger's seat smiling kindly at him. The day was almost over now, and Bumblebee was tearing it down the freeway in order to reach the beach before it shut for the evening. Jazz had been far more inquisitive about what he had missed during his inactivity than Sam had dared to hope and Mikaela, wonderful, kind Mikaela, had sat patiently and answered his every question in the utmost detail. Now, Sam was dangerously close to losing both his deposit, the hut, and his patience.

Sam was startled out of his stupor when Bumblebee's radio turned itself on. Sam was seriously considering leaning over and turning it off when a voice, not music emitted through the speakers.

"Can anyone hear me? This is Ironhide. Please respond." The voice was strained, Ironhide was obviously in pain. Sam immediately started groping around the dash, trying to find Bumblebee's radio.

"C'mon Bee, where'd you keep your radio?" Sam yelled slapping the dashboard. Bumblebee shook slightly and the radio clicked, indicating a changed channel. Sam leant towards the speaker, feeling like an idiot.

"Sam? That you? Oh, thank the spark." Ironhide's voice was pained but filled with relief. "Listen, you gotta get a message to Optimus. Barricade's alive." Sam mouth opened and closed silently as he tried to formulate a reply, thinking of the psychotic police car that he had met over two years ago. He was about to ask a question. Something along the lines of "Why?" or "How?" but Ironhide began talking again.

"There was a message from a Decepticon. It was heading to check it out. Got ambushed. Barricade got me badly. Get Optimus to help." A long string of co-ordinates followed which Bumblebee displayed on the radio screen. Sam pulled out his radio and hit 6 as Bumblebee spun the wheel himself, rocketing towards the co-ordinates on his own. For once, Sam didn't stop him, he was too busy talking to Optimus. Mikaela had pulled out her own radio and had punched in Ratchet's number. She too was relaying Ironhide's message and the Autobot medic promised that he would be there as soon as possible. But for now, with Ironhide laying wounded on a beach, Bumblebee raced at top speed to his friend, knowing that he was the only thing that stood between Ironhide and a second attack.

* * *

In the French city of Le Mans, Blurr managed to pick up the co-ordinates transmitted by Ironhide as he sat leaning against a tree. Also, as he had predicted, Hot Shot and he had become separated on entry and he was concerned for his younger Autobot companion. Where once Blurr had been the purest silvery-grey of an Autobot protoform, now his body was streaked with panels of blue and white indicating his alternate form colours. Assuring himself that the other Autobots already on the planet would attend to Ironhide and that he should go after Hot Shot was easy. No one knew about Hot Shot yet, and the young recon bot might be lost or injured from the entry. Convincing himself of his priorities, Blurr transformed and the Ferrari Formula One car burst out of the forest onto the main road, homing in on the Autobots tracking beacon.

* * *

(There we go. Thank you everyone for your continued support. This chapter makes this story the most successful that I've ever written. So rejoice, but don't relax, because we're nowhere near done yet. Please continue to review as well. They make me greatly happy.) 


	6. Exposition

Disclaimer: Transformers and all other characters related to the 2007 movie are owned by their respective owners, not me.

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Chapter 6: Exposition 

Hot Shot spun in a frantic circle, the chains in his wheels digging into the ground throwing up clouds of mud as another group of cluster missiles went wide. Hot Shot's previously silver chassis was now stained a dirty brown all over. Whilst the mud felt disgusting it did provide the added advantage of making into very hard to distinguish him from the mud on the ground meaning that Starscream's missile bombardments kept going wide of their mark. Two small machine guns had popped up on either side of Hot Shot's bonnet and he was trying to get a lock on Starscream as the Decepticon banked to the side bringing his own machine gun to bear. The logical part of Hot Shot's central processor screamed at him that he had no chance. Starscream was faster, better armed and more heavily armoured than he was and the only way to save himself from becoming a smoking pile of slag was to drive away as fast as possible. But the rest of Hot Shot's brain disagreed and the guns opened up.

In reality, the effectiveness of the guns was similar to throwing peas at a gorilla. One or two broke through Starscream's plating causing him mild discomfort as they wedged themselves into non-essential systems. Starscream retaliated in kind by transforming into robot mode. He could still fly and utilise the missile bays housed under his wings, but now the two chainguns welded into his arms could come into play. With a digitised war cry, Starscream let loose with _everything_ in his arsenal. Bullets raked the mud as missiles detonated in balls of orange flame. Hot Shot spun, jammed the gear stick into top gear and roared away. But the arsenal was catching up and, just behind the missiles, was Starscream who was reloading ready for another assault. The two guns on Hot Shot's bonnet moved independently of each other, both shooting down missiles before they could impact. But there were too many, some of them were going to hit.

One missile struck Hot Shot's rear right wheel. The force of the explosion ripped the wheel clean off and sent Hot Shot into an uncontrollable skid. The sudden change of direction forced most of the other missiles to miss and bullets to run wide. But now Hot Shot was crippled. He could no longer run. So he had to fight. Within a few seconds Hot Shot had transformed. On his back, where one of his wheels should have gone, there was now just a gaping hole, through which wires sparked and fizzed. Hot Shot threw his arms forward, letting the flaps on his forearms open up. The two guns housed there fell out into his hands. Hot Shot rolled forwards as another missile streaked over his head and came up firing. Bullets flew through the air between both sides but very few had enough power to penetrate armour, so a change of strategy was called for.

The hubcaps of the two tyres mounted on Hot Shot's shoulders flipped up revealing a rack of missiles. All of them tore forward in a trail of smoke. Smiling slightly at the bravado of the pathetic Autobot in front of him, Starscream opened his own missile bays. Not only were Starscream's missiles more powerful than Hot Shot's but there were more of them. Starscream's missiles tore through Hot Shot's like paper with more than enough left over to destroy the Autobot.

A spray of gunfire from the left hit the missiles left over, detonating them all. Both Starscream and Hot Shot spun towards the unexpected development. In Starscream's case, this was probably a mistake as an entire clip of gatling bullets hit him in the chest. And these weren't the weaker bullets that recon models such as Hot Shot were issued with. These were high-profile armour piercing rounds that were more than capable of penetrating his chassis. Crying out in pain, Starscream fell to the ground. His flight engine had been pierced and flying was difficult, if not impossible. But he needed to fly. Suddenly, he had lost the advantage and this new opponent was sufficiently equipped to severely damage if not destroy him. And, with the _Nemesis_ in human hands any self-repair would be a long and painful process. He needed to get away. Starscream managed to pull himself to his hands and knees but was immediately sent sprawling as a plate of metal hit him in the side of the head.

Ratchet continued to press the advantage by continuing to fire. The younger Transformers had recovered from his shock and also added his bullets to the barrage. Starscream yelled an insult of outrage and defiance and transformed. With one engine spluttering, the jet flew away over the treetops. Ratchet turned to the younger Transformer and pointed his gun at its head.

"Ok. Now that he's dealt with, mind telling me who you are and what you're doing here?"

"Hot Shot sir! Recon Autobot from Cybertron escape team Bravo. My teammate and I were sent to this planet in order to determine the origin of a signal believed to have been sent by Optimus Prime!" Hot Shot rattled this all off quickly and without pause. He kept his eyes on the space just above Ratchet's head and maintained a salute al the time. Ratchet smiled and motioned for the Autobot to lower his hand.

"Well, you got lucky kid. I'm Ratchet. Medical officer of Cybertron escape team Alpha. I'll take you to see Optimus. You can send a transmission to your friend on the way. We'd better start moving. Starscream might have backup."

* * *

Three miles down the beach from where Ironhide lay unconscious, Barricade trundled along, scanning for any metallic object large enough to be Frenzy. The Decepticon hacker had maintained radio silence since he had sent the SOS transmission and Barricade was searching for the miraculous resurrected Transformer. His scanners picked up a quantity of metal only a few hundred metres away that matched Frenzy's size. Barricade set off towards it. 

The quantity of metal his scanner had picked up was a portable stereo inside a shopping trolley. Both were covered in rust and copious amounts of seaweed. Barricade snorted and started to scan again when the stereo twitched. The two speakers took on a bluish tint and the panelling began to shift, turning itself into Frenzy's head. The shopping trolley was also twisting, its spindly fibres of metal became Frenzy's arms and legs. The rust was also moving until it coalesced at Frenzy's hands, giving him the impression that he was wearing gloves. The Decepticon shook himself in order to rid himself of the seaweed and walked over to Barricade. The miniature Decepticon quickly hacked through Barricade's firewalls, found the door release command and activated it. The passenger door swung open and Frenzy clambered in.

"You could have just asked." Barricade said in Decepticon. Frenzy just growled.

"Shut up and get me out of here. I've had it up to here with this damn ocean." Frenzy snarled and turned to wave a fist at the expanse of blue. Barricade gave a mental shrug, put himself into gear and drove off. He hit the off-ramp and continued onto the freeway.

"So. Mind explaining how you've managed to be sitting in my passenger seat as opposed to laying at the bottom of the ocean?" Barricade asked overtaking a car on the inside.

"Can't say for sure." Frenzy muttered. The little Decepticon had turned Barricade's heaters on and had dried off. This seemed to improve his mood slightly. "I have numerous theories as to my return. And numerous ways in which they could be applied to allow for the return of our other fallen comrades, including Lord Megatron."

Barricade said nothing. He was waiting to see what Frenzy's next step would be. The two had been partners many times in the past under both Megatron's command and Starscream's and he had no doubt as to the Decepticon's loyalty. But resurrecting Lord Megatron would be difficult. Especially considering the Autobot's newfound alliance with the human militia.

"So. What is your plan?" Barricade asked as he made the turning back towards Tranquillity.

"Take me to a human airport," Frenzy said. "or, failing that, access to their computer network. More information is needed." Barricade agreed and took the next turning towards Tranquillity airport.

* * *

Bumblebee hit the beach doing 85 and skidded down the embankment in a shower of sand. He screeched to a stop in front of Ironhide's prone form. The larger Autobot had been performing some internal repairs and had enough energy to open one dim eye as they approached. 

"Hey guys." He wheezed. Sam and Mikaela leapt out of Bumblebee's seats and hurried over to where Ironhide lay. Mikaela had a cursory glance at Ironhide's injuries with her mechanic's eye. He was hurt badly, but fortunately very few of his vital systems had taken massive damage. Ratchet could repair the damage in twenty minutes. She moved to get her communicator out of her shorts pocket but saw that Sam was ahead of her on that respect. Sam nodded to whoever he was talking to (She presumed it was Ratchet.) and put the comm back in his jeans and walked over to her.

"Ratchet'll be here in an hour. Says he's got a surprise for us." Mikaela nodded and the two sat down on the sand to wait. Ironhide turned to look at them.

"You two gonna sit there for an entire hour?" he asked. The two smiled reassuringly. Ironhide grinned back and laid his head back down. "Thanks kids. Let's just hope Barricade don't come back."

* * *

(Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you for your continued support. Sorry about the lateness of this chapter but I hope you'll find it worth it. Stay tuned for the next chapter.) 


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